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Govt vigilant to jihadist threat: Bishop

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says all levels of the Australian government are working to tackle the threat of Australian jihadists returning home with "new-found abilities and talents in terrorism".

Insurgent group Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), also known as ISIS, is using online recruitment videos to entice Australians and Muslims in other parts of the world to join its fight in Syria and Iraq.

One video believed to have been filmed in Syria features two Australians who identify themselves as Abu Yahya al-Shami and Abu Nour al-Iraqi.

In the video titled There is No Life Without Jihad, one of the men, speaking in an Australian accent, urges people to fight with ISIL.

"I don't see myself as better than any of you," he says.

Allah had brought him to the country, he says, and "this is the message I want to send to youse (sic)".

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Wording on the video suggest that soon after the video was shot the man died in fighting.

US President Barack Obama has made reference to Australian jihadists, saying he is "deeply concerned" about the threat posed when they returned home.

"There is no doubt the problem in Syria is one that we have been paying a lot of attention to over the last couple of years as you see jihadists coming in from Europe and as far as Australia to get trained and then going back into their home countries," he told CNN.

Ms Bishop said the Australian government was aware Australians were heading to both Syria and Iraq to join up with jihadist groups, putting the number of those already involved in the fighting at 150.

"We are particularly concerned with the reports of Australians who are heading off not only to train, but to take leadership roles in radicalising others," she told ABC television on Sunday.

"The fear is they will come back to Australia with these new-found abilities and talents in terrorism."

Ms Bishop said the overseas insurgents' activities were being monitored and assessed all the time, and the government was "ever vigilant" to ensure Australians were kept safe from the threat posed by returning fighters.

All ministers, agencies and departments were involved in seeking to solve this problem, she said.

"We are doing what we can across government - it is a topic that is engaging the Australian government at every level," Ms Bishop said.

"Our National Security Committee is discussing this matter, and we are working out ways to ensure that Australians are safe from what I find to be a deeply disturbing development in our domestic security."

The government had already cancelled a number of passports, she said.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the vast majority of people the government had concerns about were Australian citizens, not immigrants on visas.

"They're the ones we're on high alert for at our airports, both on the way out and the way in," he told Network Ten.

Criminality wasn't confined to any one ethnic group and he had cancelled visas for all kinds of people who didn't meet good character tests.

NSW Premier Mike Baird voiced concerns about reports of Australian jihadists coming out of western Sydney in particular.

He told Sky News he was talking to his cabinet about what could be done, as well as liaising with the federal government.